Each year, monarch butterflies make a perilous migration from Mexico up to the Midwest. (Photo by Deb Walker)
Monarch butterflies are on their way north once again. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has an update on the threats facing
the monarchs on their long journey from Mexico:
Transcript
Monarch butterflies are on their way north once again. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chris Lehman has an update on the threats facing the monarchs on their long journey from Mexico:
The annual migration from Mexico to the upper Midwest takes several months. The butterflies that ultimately arrive here are the second and third generation of those that spend the winter in Mexico.
Matt Douglas is a professor of zoology at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan. He’s studied monarchs for more than 25 years and has visited their wintering grounds in Mexico several times. He says monarchs so far have been able to withstand threats from nearby logging operations there. But he says the butterflies are far from invincible.
“You never know what’s going to hit you or when. If you have multiple bad experiences with weather or with parasites and predators, you’re not going to have many monarchs.”
Douglas says if all goes well, people in the Midwest should begin to see monarch butterflies starting in late May.
For the GLRC, I’m Chris Lehman.